Drip-pan alarm.



M. JACOBSON.

DRIP PAN ALARM.

APPLICATIOIN FILED SEPT. 11, I914.

1,142,577, I Patented June 8, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

I WITNESSES 70 m/mv TOR A TTORNEYS THE NkRls PETERS (70-, PHOm-LITHQ.WASHING TUN. D. C.

M. JACOBSON.

DRIP PAN ALARM.

APPLICATION FILED sen. II. I9I4.

Patented J 11110 8, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- awa M n W u M m 7 VI ODD M a W m g W/ T/VESSES FHENORRIS PETERS CO PHOTOJJTHQ, WASHINGTON 0, CV

MONUS JACOBSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

DRIP-PAN ALARM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 8, 1915.

Application filed September 17, 1914. Serial No. 862,167.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, MONUS JACOBSON, a citizenof the United States, and a resident of New Yorlnboi'ough of Manhattan,county and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Drip-PanAlarm, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a refrigerator, or ice'box appliances, and hasparticular reference to drip pans for such devices.

Among the objects of the invention is to provide an audible alarm for adrip pan, which will serve to announce to the occupants of the house thefact that the drip pan is full or nearly full of water; whereby thelikelihood of flooding the floor of a building will be practicallyeliminated.

A further object of the invention is to provide a drip pan havingassociated therewith as a permanent part audible alarm devices, andfurthermore, I provide novel means for adjusting the devices so as tocause the alarm to sound according to the variations in a possible depthof water.

A further object is to provide a novel and efficient means to break thecircuit of alarm mechanism simultaneously with the grasping of the panhandle while withdrawing it from the refrigerator.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention are carried out in aperfect manner by the devices hereinafter more fully set forth andclaimed, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure1 is a perspective View of one form of my invention; Fig. 2 is avertical longitudinal section corresponding to the line 22 of Fig. 3;Fig. 3 is a plan view of the central portion of the device; Fig. 4 is avertical transverse section on the line H of Fig. 2, but omitting thefloat and bridge members; Figs. 5 and 6 are details of modificationsdescribed below; and Fig. 7 is a diagram of the bell and electricalconnec tions in circuit therewith.

The several parts of the device may be made of any suitable materialsand the relative sizes and proportions thereof may be varied to aconsiderable extent, without departing from the spirit of the inventionhereinafter more fully set forth and claimed.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, I show a pan or receptacle10 of any suitable form in plan view, and of a depth suitable for thelocation below a refrigerator or the like, to receive the drip water. Atthe front or side wall 11 of the pan I arrange the handle 12, preferablyof a rigid nature, and secured permanently to said front wall. Theprimary purpose of this handle is to facilitate the manipulation of thepan. A secondary purpose of the handle is to control the action of thealarm, as will be fully described below.

Located at any convenient place, as for example upon the inner side ofone side wall 13 of the pan is a casing 14:, in which is housed somesuitable audible alarm device shown herein and to be referred tohereafter as a bell 15. This bell may be of the well-known electricallycontrolled type.

At 16 I show a wire leading to the bell from the battery 17, which maybe conveniently located in a casing 18 on the opposite side wall 19 ofthe pan. Each of the casings 1 and 18 may be provided with a door orshutter 20, through or by which access to the interior of the same maybe had from the outside of the pan. These casings with theiralarm partswill be understood, therefore, to be carried as a rigid or per manentpart of the pan construction. The walls of the casings on the inside ofthe pan are made waterproof, and hence there is no interference with theoperation of the bell by reason of the water within the pan.

Any suitable means may be provided within the pan and acted uponautomatically by the water as it fills up or rises within the pan tocomplete the circuit between the battery and the bell to cause the bellto ring when the water reaches a certain predetermined depth. In thepreferred embodiment of the invention this means for completing thecircuit includes a bridge 21 extending along the middle portion of theinside of the pan between two casings 1 1 and 18. This bridge when madeof metal may constitute a ground for the circuit in connection with thecasing 14. As indicated in Fig. 1 in full and dotted lines, the bridgeis adapted because of its construction to be bent up or down in themiddle as may be de sired, to determine the point at which it becomese'lfective; in other words, if it is desired to cause the alarm to soundat a lower level of water, the bridge is bent downwardly accordingly asindicated in the dotted lines. Cooperating with the bridge is a float 22of any suitable light buoyant construction, the same being hereininclicated as carried on the inner end of a rigid arm 23 pivoted at 24,adjacent the upper edge of the front wall 11. This float carries ametallic contact point 25 which is adapted to strike the under surfaceof the bridge when the predetermined depth of water in the pan isreached. A circuit wire 26 leads from th battery along the front wall ofthe pan, and thence along the arm 23 to the contact point 25 where it isconnected. I refer to form the arm 23 hollow and thread the branch wire26 through the center thereof, as shown at Fig. 2. It will be apparent,therefore, that when the float is lifted to complete the circuit throughthe contact point 25 and brid e 21, the bell 15 will ring and willcontinue ringing until the at tendant comes to empty the pan.

Obviously when the attendant appears to empty the pan, it will beunnecessary and ordinarily undesirable for the bell to continue ringing,hence I provide a means whereby the moment the attendant grasps thehandle 12 to withdraw the pan the circuit will be broken. The means Iemploy for this purpose comprises a member 27 projecting downwardlywithin the space be tween the handle 12 and the pan, and pivoted at 28adjacent the upper edge of the pan. This member is in the nature of abell crank lever, whose opposite or inner end 29 is adapted to beardownwardly upon the top of the arm 23, throwing the arm and floatdownwardly far enough to remove the contact point from the bridge whenthe pressure is applied to the handle to remove the pan. The outer endof the member 27 is the heavier, and normally does not interfere withthe intended operation of the float arm. The member 27 is preferablymade of bendable or flexible material, whereby its precise shape may bevaried in accordance with the vertical adjustment of the bridge 21, orthe equivalent contact member, with respect to the desired depth ofwater.

The bridge instead of being made of a simple one-piece construction mayhave connected thereto an adjustable screw 30 adapted to projectdownwardly for coiiperation with the contact point 25. This wouldobviate the necessity of bending or distorting Copies of this patent maybe obtained for five cents each,

the bridge. Another modification of the bridge mechanism is shown inFig. 6, in which the main portion thereof 21 is made of fiber or someother non-conductor, and to the lower surface of the bridge is arrangeda bridge 21, the same comprising a comparatively short metallic plateadapted to span the space between two contact points 25, to which thecircuit wires 26 and 26 are connected in a manner substantially similarto the manner of connecting the single wire 26 to the single contact 25previously described. In this adaptation of the invention, the wires areintended to make the electrical circuit, and the pan does not constitutea ground between the bell and the battery.

I claim:

1. In a float operated circuit closer for drip pans, a float,connections between the float and the pan to close a circuit when thefloat is lifted, and means made operative coincidentally with thegrasping of the pan to remove it to break the circuit.

2. In a float operated circuit closer for drip pans, a pan, a floatwithin the pan, means carried by the float to complete a circuit inconnection with that part of the circuit included in the pan, and amember car ried by the pan and movably related to the float whereby whenthe pan is withdrawn the circuit will be broken.

3. In a float operated circuit closer for drip pans, a float, meanscarried by the float to close a circuit when the float is lifted, and abell crank lever pivoted adjacent the top of the pan, one arm of thebell crank coiiperating with the float and the other arm of the bellcrank extending downwardly on the outside of the pan adjacent the handlethere of whereby when the handle is grasped the bell crank will be swungon its pivot causing the float to move downwardly breaking the circuit.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

MONUS JACOBS'ON.

lVitnesses:

GEO. L. BEELER, PHILIP D. RoLLI-IAUS.

by addressing the Commissioner 0! Patents.

Washington, I); G.

